Religious Violence Perverts Good Motives

The increasing violence in the name of religion staggers the imagination. In fact, one wonders if religion does not provoke more strife than it prevents. Yet, it is nothing new. A cursory review of history would certainly support such a conclusion. Some suggest, for...

The Slippery Slope of Conservatism

“Torture, burning at the stake and other punishment for the faithful condemned as witches or heretics by church tribunals during the Inquisition was not as widespread as commonly believed, the Vatican said Tuesday.” This lead paragraph in an Associated...

Dealing With the Realities of Life

The thought of digging a hole waist deep, binding a woman’s arms, covering her head with a black scarf and standing her in the pit for a mob of frenzied men to stone her until dead is beyond my comprehension for sane people. The alleged crime? Prostitution. This...

A Haunting Question

Greetings from the campus of Mount Meru University near Arusha, Tanzania, in eastern Africa. This is my third and most gratifying voluntary mission to the only Baptist university in the whole of East Africa, a tribute to the missionary enterprise of Baptists in the...

Antidotes for Doubt and Fear

At about this time last year, my wife and I were prepared to leave for a volunteer mission project in Nairobi, Kenya. Fear of impending war in Iraq at the time and earlier terrorist attacks in the east African nation prompted officials of the Baptist World Alliance,...